Description

The purpose of this work is to present and give full proofs of new original research results concerning integration of and scattering for the classical Maxwell-Dirac equations. These equations govern first quantized electrodynamics and are the starting point for a rigorous formulation of quantum electrodynamics. The presentation is given within the formalism of nonlinear group and Lie algebra representations, i.e. the powerful new approach to nonlinear evolution equations covariant under a group action. The authors prove that the nonlinear Lie algebra representation given by the manifestly covariant Maxwell-Dirac equations is integrable to a global nonlinear representation of the Poincaré group on a differentiable manifold of small initial conditions. This solves, in particular, the small-data Cauchy problem for the Maxwell-Dirac equations globally in time. The existence of modified wave operators and asymptotic completeness is proved. The asymptotic representations (at infinite time) turn out to be nonlinear. A cohomological interpretation of the results in the spirit of nonlinear representation theory and its connection to the infrared tail of the electron are developed.